Children in the Northern Territory are more than three times more likely to die before they turn five than in the southern suburbs of Melbourne, a study shows. The National Health Performance Authority report, released on Thursday, is the first of its kind that presents data at a local level for infant and young child mortality, smoking in pregnancy, antenatal visits and low-birthweight babies.

The Queensland government has decided the advertising industry is doing enough to regulate itself, but has left itself the option of coming in with a bigger stick if advertisers don’t abide by the regulator's rulings. In response to a parliamentary inquiry into sexually explicit outdoor advertising that recommend the creation of a co-regulatory approach to outdoor advertising, the government has opted to act as back up to the industry’s self-regulatory approach.

Victoria has banned religious organisations from running prayer groups, handing out Bibles and delivering other unauthorised information sessions in state schools during school hours. The directive has been issued by the Education Department under recent changes to the delivery of Special Religious Instruction (SRI) to students in public schools.

Poor graduates would pay about 30 per cent more than their richer counterparts for their degree under the federal government's plan to charge real interest on student debts for the first time, according to the architect of the HECS system.

Public opposition to assisted suicide grows dramatically when people are more informed of the arguments, a new poll has revealed.Figures show that many of those who initially express support for assisted suicide switch to opposing it when presented with evidence from places where the practice has been legalised.

The Coalition's plan to water down race hate laws has been rejected by a marked majority of respondents to a government review. More than 76 per cent of 4100 submissions to Attorney-General George Brandis' draft changes to the Racial Discrimination Act were opposed to the proposal - known as the ''Bolt law'' after conservative columnist Andrew Bolt.

The “blight of disparity” would end for all welfare-reliant Aus­tralians — black and white — under a radical, ambitious blueprint that would see the introduction of a national “healthy welfare” card for all, a major reduction in the number of income support payments and bans on young people accessing welfare unless they are training or in work.

Australia is holding 659 children in immigration detention, the human rights commission has heard. Department of Immigration and Border Protection secretary Martin Bowles told a national inquiry the number of children being held in detention centres in Australia and offshore had fallen by more than 1330 since hitting a peak of 1992 in July, 2013.

Earlier this month IS gave Mosul’s Christians few options: convert to Islam, pay a religious tax, leave, or face death. But the day before the final exodus, Christians were informed that paying the tax was no longer an option.